Cover of The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys

core novel 2012 The Raven Cycle

Record

First published2012
Original language EN
Work typenovel
Canon statuscore
Reader rating4.05 (409,991 ratings, collected 2026-08-30)
Page count409
First-edition ISBN9780545424936
Internal chronology1

Synopsis

The Raven Boys is the first novel in the Raven Cycle and is set in the small Virginia town of Henrietta. Every year, teenager Blue Sargent watches from the sidelines as the dead pass by on St. Mark's Eve, a night her clairvoyant mother uses to predict which people in town will die within the year, though Blue herself has never been able to see the spirits directly. That changes when a boy named Gansey speaks to her, something she has always been told means her true love is fated to die. Blue is drawn into the world of Gansey and his three friends from the private Aglionby Academy, Adam, Ronan and Noah, who are pursuing a mysterious quest tied to old legends about a sleeping Welsh king, even as Blue's family warnings hang over her growing closeness to the group.

Where it sits

Notes

  • From the series record (The Raven Cycle): The original quartet following Blue Sargent and the Raven Boys' search for a sleeping Welsh king.

Neighbouring works

Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.

  • Publication order, within the series The Raven Cycle: position 1 of 4: next The Dream Thieves (2013)
  • Internal chronology, within The Raven Cycle: position 1 of 7: next The Dream Thieves (2013)

Sources

← The Raven Cycle dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.